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Monday, March 16, 2015

How long do cats live?

Nelson was named after Nelson Mandela.

How long does the average cat live? It’s a question
frequently put to me by cat owners and I confess until this week I’ve been
basing the answer on experience (i.e. patients I’ve seen, cats I’ve known etc.).
Fortunately that’s been vindicated by a recent report published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery(O'Neill
et al., 2015).

The paper, based on data collected from just over 4000
cats in the UK, found that the average pet feline lifespan these days is around
14 years. The average cross-breed (moggy, domestic) cat lives longer than a
purebred (by about 0.6 of a year, on average), but of course there is huge
variation in individual lifespans. Birmans, Burmese, Siamese and Persians lived
as long or longer than moggies, while Abyssinians, Bengals, British shorthairs,
Maine Coons and Ragdolls had reduced longevity compared to the average.

The study has some very interesting findings. For
example, the most common cause of death in cats five years or under was trauma,
mostly motor vehicle encounters. These accounted for 47.3% of deaths in this
age group.

In cats over five, the most common causes of death were
kidney disease (13.6%), non-specific illness (12.6%), cancer (12.3%), and “mass
lesion disorder” (11.6%). A mass lesion disorder was identified as a mass for
which no diagnosis was made – so a mass might be cancerous, but it might also
have been a cyst, inflammatory lesion or abscess. A number of cats with
non-specific illness may have had cancer. The authors suggest that it is
possible that cancer could account for up to one quarter of deaths in older
cats.

Thinner cats lived longer. In cats over 5 years old,
those that weighed under 3kg lived 1.7 years longer than cats weighing 4-5kg.

One major limitation of this and any veterinary study
into longevity is that euthanasia may be elected by owners, and as such the
stats may not reflect the natural lifespan of the cat. What we also can’t
conclude is the role of husbandry – for example, whether diet, vaccination,
indoor vs outdoor lifestyle or obesity are factors in determining longevity and
if so, how influential are they?

Obviously we know that cats with unrestricted
outdoor access are at greater risk of getting hit by a car, and suffering other
trauma including dog attacks or cat bite wounds.

It’s also hard to pick which cats will live longer. I’ve
met young cats that develop cancer, and elderly cats that just keep on
truckin’. The oldest patient I’ve performed surgery on was a 23.5 year old cat,
who went on to live for another six months.

Veterinary Ethics: Navigating Tough Cases

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